I wish to repeat here what I have written abut before, "The opposition should plan to have on Presidential candidate who is not a leader of any Ugandan Political parties." When some of us make proposals they are rubbished by those who think they know a lot and have a right to be listened to! I for one have trusted my head. Having seen how President Museveni went about maneuvering t get t where he is, I rejected being party to his moves which saw him capture power. Ever since, I have not regretted. Many people including Kiiza Besigye, Hon. Bukenya among others realized who President Museveni is many years after they worked with him. This way of doing business will remain expensive for Uganda. Many people are so short sighted that they get to wake up when it is late!
This time round, seeing the developments between Hon. Mbabazi and President Museveni, it only gets logical to understand that changing from Museveni cannot be that easy. That is the reason I a advising that the opposition should drop that belief that an individual party can get the President out office. What ought to be done is to start on a strategy which will see a compromise Presidential candidate who is not a leader of any of the opposition parties. This will rule out the conviction that any opposition party is greater than the others. Chances of such a candidate taking it can greatly out weigh those f any of the opposition party candidates.
The opposition is looking at meetings, however, time is ripe to use sms communication to get to the voters given the penetration of mobile phones.
The developments in the NRM camp are expressed in the article below:
The
dire effects of the political standoff between President Museveni and
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi are clear and could grossly affect the
functioning of government, a minister has warned.
Writing on his Facebook wall on March 14, the minister of state for
Regional Affairs, Asuman Kiyingi, said the two senior politicians needed
to work together and read from the same page or else Uganda would
suffer the consequences.
“I can state with almost religious
conviction that there can be no winner in a fall-out between H.E Y. K
Museveni, Chairman NRM, and Rt Hon Amama Mbabazi, Prime Minister and
Secretary General NRM. The NRM, the government, the opposition and the
whole country will lose out. It is only Uganda’s enemies that may stand
to gain,” Kiyingi wrote.
A Museveni-Mbabazi rift, according to
Kiyingi, will lead to inertia in the operations of the NRM and the
government. The earlier it is resolved, the better. He writes that it is
bad that some junior cadres have exploited the situation to denigrate
the prime minister on social media, warning it could lead to chaos. He
mentions Robert Rutaro, the secretary general of the NRM Youth League,
and a one Dan Birekyeraho as the culprits.
“This is how anarchy crops into society.
Juniors disrespecting and badmouthing their superiors and little small
fellows loading it over everybody! A very dangerous development in the
country which all Ugandans must pray about and guard against,” he
writes.
He says that while he will support
Museveni in the 2016 elections, he loves and enormously respects
Mbabazi. Kiyingi, an Independent MP, is the first minister to publicly
comment about the friction between Mbabazi and Museveni, which has
captivated the country over the past one month.
Speaking to The Observer on Monday,
Kiyingi affirmed that these were his views. He said it was in the
interest of the country for Museveni and Mbabazi to be on good working
terms. He also cautioned that giving Shs 4 million to NRM MPs to
popularise the Kyankwanzi resolution that endorses Museveni’s sole NRM
candidacy, as was decided last week, could open up new fronts of
“hostile engagements” and backfire if the two principals (Mbabazi and
Museveni) remained at loggerheads.
Last week, it was resolved that each NRM
MP would be given Shs 4 million to popularise the Kyankwanzi resolution
in each sub-country in their constituencies
Kiyingi’s statement
We praise and thank the Almighty God
that the rains have come after a long dry spell. It is also high time we
all talk unity and peace.
The last one month has been very
stressful to many Ugandans. For the first time in their hitherto deep
and comradely relationship open differences and a simmering conflict
emerged between His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as President and
Chairman NRM and Rt Hon Amama Mbabazi as Prime Minister and Secretary
General NRM.
From the Kyankwanzi/Ngoma Resolutions,
which I supported on this very wall incidentally, to the last three
meetings of the NRM Parliamentary Caucus in State House Entebbe, the
problem lingers. Now NRM MPs are going to the villages to preach the
need for unity and cohesion in the party and government.
This is all good and timely as long as
the President and Prime Minister’s minds have met and are now pulling in
the same direction and reading from the same page. Short of this, it is
an exercise in futility that will only open up new fronts of hostile
engagement that will fracture government and the party even further.
I love my President wholeheartedly and
will support his candidature come 2016. I also love and respect my Prime
Minister and hate to imagine the government side in Parliament without
him as Prime Minister and leader of government business.
It, therefore, saddens me to see
intelligent NRM cadres like Robert Rutaro, Dun Birekyeraho and others
making it a favourite pastime to attack the Rt Hon Prime Minister and
Secretary General of their party on social media. It is equally
stressing to ask one to make a choice between the two (President and
Prime Minister) and single him/her out for ostracisation by some
overzealous colleagues supposedly because he/she favours one over the
other! This is really absurd!
I am 100% sure neither the H.E President
nor the Rt Hon Prime Minister approve of it. This is how anarchy crops
into society. Juniors disrespecting and badmouthing their superiors and
little small fellows loading it over everybody! A very dangerous
development in the country which all Ugandans must pray about and guard
against.
The H. E/PM conflict is pregnant with
very ugly and nasty possibilities. I can state with almost religious
conviction that there can be no winner in a fall-out between H.E Y. K
Museveni, Chairman NRM, and Rt. Hon. Amama Mbabazi Prime Minister and
Secretary General NRM.
The NRM, the government, the Opposition
and the whole country will lose out. It is only Uganda’s enemies that
may stand to gain. So friends across the political divide, let us all
pull in the same direction and urge and pray for our dear President to
handle and resolve this delicate matter at the earliest. Let each one of
us do their small part to put down this fire. This is not a laughing
matter to play around with.
ekiggundu@observer.ug
ekiggundu@observer.ug